Today was the first free day that I had to ride. It is also the 19th straight day in Houston with no rain, 90 degree plus temperatures and 80% humidity. On top of that, we had a 20 mph wind blowing out of the southeast. Not the best of days for a long ride.
But a man's gotta do what a man's gotta do so I decided to get out early to beat the heat. Ha! I sweat through my jersey just pumping up my tires. I picked a route that had me going into the wind on the way out and with the wind on the way home. Of course, that usually fails because the wind changes just about the time you turn around, but the theory is good anyway.
Straight out flags mean 20 mph wind. Bed sheet tight flags = 35 mph wind. These aren't there.....yet.
I set out with my 24 and 35 ounce water bottles both full and enough cash to refill them at convenience stores with bottled water several times over the course of the ride. I needed all of that and more. I arrived home empty after filling both bottles twice. I was sweating it out faster than I could pour it in.
At about the turnaround point I was attacked by 4 dogs coming out of a fenced yard with the gate left open. There were two pit bulls, a black lab mix and a terrier something or other that looked like a fright wig on legs. The two pit bulls got on either side of my bike and lunged at my legs. I screamed at them, flailed at them and ultimately kicked one in the head rather hard. It didn't even slow him down. I finally had to out run them, getting away with nothing more than a good scare and a set of very tired legs. Forgive me if I don't have pictures of the event but I was a bit busy at the time.
There were some new wild flowers to take pictures of. These black eyed Susans are about the size of a dime. They were growing in perfusion along the ditch lines at the side of the road. All of the other wild flowers have browned out due to the prolonged heat, the ditch mowing that is still going on and the fact that we haven't had a decent rain in about a month.
Black Eyed Susans in the ditch. Note the dry cracking of the dirt behind them. Its dry and hot!
As I turned toward home, the wind died down somewhat but at least remained behind me. However the heat and the sweat were taking their toll and by the 30 mile mark I was starting to bonk. This is when your body says, "You ain't gonna do this to me no more!" I ended up doing the last 12 miles in 4 mile increments with a stop at the side of the road in the shade between spurts of effort.
At one of them, near an old Texas war of independence cemetery, I ended up sitting in a huge bunch of dragonflies. I wonder what you call them? A flight? A flair? I sort of like a dart of dragonflies myself because it is evocative of what they are doing. Anyway, these were all the same size, about 1 3/4" long, in different colors of blue, grey and green. They were very aggressive and territorial so I never got a chance to get a photo of more that one at a time. They even landed on my legs. I wonder if they liked the salt?
I finished up the ride really short of energy and with that "golden halo" effect around everything I looked at. I did 45 miles at 14 mph. Gave the bike a perfunctory check, wash down and lube and came in and took a nap. Now I need to get more fluids and some salt into me to stop my legs from cramping. And to top it off, all the stopping and starting didn't really give the new saddle a decent test so I'll have to do it again next weekend.
But a man's gotta do..............................
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